Cry of the Hunter - Jack Higgins [69]
‘I’m ready whenever you are,’ Fallon said. He closed his eyes as another wave of pain coursed through his body. He ground his nails into the palms of his hands and breathed slowly and deeply, and then the doors were suddenly jerked open.
He jumped to the ground, turned, and pulled one of the parcels forward. ‘Has anyone noticed?’ he said without raising his head.
Rose looked round casually. ‘No, it seems to have worked,’ she said. ‘Now bring one of those parcels and follow me.’
The parcel wasn’t heavy and yet the perspiration stood in beads on Fallon’s brow as he followed the girl up the ramp and along the greasy platform. The train stood waiting in a gentle drift of steam. Rose went straight to the guard’s van. For the moment there was no one there, and they deposited the parcels and moved back along the platform.
There were very few people on board. Fallon opened the door of an empty carriage near the rear of the train and they climbed in and stood in the corridor. ‘Better keep out of sight,’ he said. ‘There are too few people on that platform to give me any kind of screen.’
She nodded. ‘Yes, it would be a pity to get caught now.’ She smiled. ‘There were two of them on the goods yard gate. Luckily the porter on duty there knows me.’ She shook her head and said with a grimace, ‘I wouldn’t like to go through it again, though, I was shaking in my shoes in case they decided to search the van.’
He smiled and squeezed her hand. ‘You’ve been a real trooper.’ She was standing on the opposite side of the narrow corridor, facing him so that their bodies were almost touching. The station was quiet. There was an air of hushed expectancy over everything. The girl’s eyes, dark and luminous, were fastened on his face and suddenly tears sprang to them. He reached forward and clumsily patted her. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I’ll be all right.’
‘Oh, I pray to God you will be,’ she said. She stared fixedly into his face and then she took a half-pace forward into his arms and kissed him passionately. For a moment she clung there and then she tore herself free, stepped on to the platform, and closed the door.
As the whistle sounded shrilly from the end of the platform, Fallon reached for his wallet. He pulled out all that was left of the money O’Hara had given him. There was just over a hundred pounds. He extracted five one pound notes and slipped them back into the wallet; then he pushed the bundle of money into her hands. ‘There, that’s for you,’ he said. ‘There’s over a hundred. Use it well. Get clear away from this place. Make a new life for yourself.’
Her eyes grew round with astonishment as she looked at the money. ‘But I can’t take this,’ she said. ‘It’s too much.’ The train began to move slowly and she walked along the platform keeping pace with him.
He shook his head. ‘Keep it,’ he said. ‘It isn’t any use to me now. Besides, you’ve earned every penny of it.’
The train was moving faster now and she started to run. Her eyes were brimming with tears. ‘I’ll never forget you, Mr. Fallon. Not as long as I live.’
A sudden lump moved into his throat and he said unsteadily, ‘I’ll never forget you, Rose.’ And then she was gone and the platform receded, carrying her away into the past.
He sat in the corner of an empty compartment and stared out of the window. Everything was in the hands of fate now. A few hours would see him at the border. Once there he would have to take his chances, but if he waited for darkness it shouldn’t prove too difficult to cross over on foot. Another spasm of savage pain lifted in his body. He closed his eyes and leaned back in the corner and after a while he drifted into a state somewhere between sleeping and waking.
About half an hour later he opened his eyes and realized